Great Britain sending ‘A’ squad to home World Cup in Manchester

Great Britain is sending one of its strongest possible squads to the first round of the UCI Track World Cup, in Manchester, England, between November first and third. As the host nation, all eyes will be on the red, white and blue team, but confidence is high after bringing home eight medals from last week’s European Championships, in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

“We came home from the European Track Championships with three gold, two silver and three bronze medals, which has given us a solid start to the season, said Great Britain’s performance manager Shane Sutton. “We’ll be looking to build on that over the next couple of weeks, and I’m hoping to see some good performances across the board at the World Cup in Manchester.

“To compete at an event at our ‘home’ velodrome is always a big boost to the team and it’s without a doubt our favourite venue to race at,” he added. “All of the team are looking forward to racing with the support of a home crowd again.”

Great Britain won both the men’s and women’s Team Pursuit, as well as the women’s Omnium, through Olympic champion Laura Trott. Olympic champion Jason Kenny took the silver in the Sprint and bronze in the Sprint in Apeldoorn, and Dani King took silver in the Points Race.

Jess Varnish took the bronze in both the Sprint and Team Sprint, the latter alongside World champion Becky James.

The four Wiggle Honda riders from the five-woman squad that shattered its own Team Pursuit World record in Apeldoorn - Elinor Barker, King, Joanna Rowsell and Trott - with a time of 4:26.556, will make up a four-rider squad in Manchester. The fifth member, Katie Archibald, will instead be representing her trade team, the City of Edinburgh, but the Great Britain team will certainly be tough to beat.

Along with King, Rowsell and Trott, the Great Britain team will include four Olympic champions from London 2012, in Jason Kenny, Phil Hindes, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, as well as double World champion James.